Was Cecilia Payne too clever to be remembered??????????????

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979) was born into a very gifted English family of science, law and music. She herself became an astronomer and astrophysicist who ought to have been famous in her own time for her ground-breaking doctoral thesis in 1925. However, her ideas about stars consisting of helium and hydrogen were not in favor at the time and even when it was proved that she was right, somehow she and her name were forgotten. 

Her work on the nature of variable stars was foundational to the astrophysics of today. After studies at Cambridge she was met with a SILLY problem: Cambridge did not grant degrees to women until 1948. When hearing or reading about something like that one can't help thinking about one very common question in feminism: Why are there not as many female scientists, authors, musicians, etc., etc. as male ones? Well, well, think of someone like Cecilia Payne and answer that question yourself ....

All through her years of studies she had to fight hard for the grants that came natural to her male fellow students. It's interesting how her life story sort of illustrates the modern feminist accusations of misogyny and discrimination in society and in the world of e.g. science ....

https://araniea.com/a-98-year-old-kentucky-woman-with.../

 

https://physicsworld.com/a/cecilia-payne-gaposchkin-the-woman-who-found-hydrogen-in-the-stars/ 

 

Wikipedia